Mass Effect Minis: The T'Sonis
by Yuri-hime
Summary: What if Aethyta had been around for Liara during those first 100 years of her life? What kind of life would she have led before meeting Shepard, and being exposed to the Reapers? Let's take a peek at the life Liara, Aethyta, and Benezia would have made together. Chapter 2 Up.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer** - I do not own the _Mass Effect_ series or its characters. They are owned by _BioWare_. I'm just happily playing around in their massive backyard~ ;3

**Author's Note** - I always love reading stories where Liara and Aethyta have really great moments together. And I also always wondered what it would be like if Liara had actually had her father around, watching out for her during those first 100 years of her life. What would Liara's life have been like? What kind of person would she have become, if she not only had Benezia her mother around, but also her father Aethyta? Thus this story was born~ =p

Hope you all enjoy~ =D

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><p><strong>~Mass Effect Minis: The T'Sonis~<strong>

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><p>"Higher Da, higher!" eight-year-old Liara exclaimed with a happy giggle.<p>

"Higher huh, munchkin? Alright, don't say your old man never did anything for ya!" Matriarch Aethyta said with a grin, as she hoisted her giggling child higher into the air, and made her dive-bomb toward the ground like the soaring, native birds of Thessia.

"'Theyta darling, I _know_ we've nicknamed our precious little one _Little Wing_ but honestly..._must_ you actually treat her as if she actually _has_ wings?" a softly-amused voice spoke up from behind the playing pair, causing Aethyta to quickly swing around with a wide unrepentant grin, to look upon the vision that was her bondmate.

"Aw, now don't go getting your civvies all in a bunch, Nezzy. Little Wing here is going to soar through the universe someday, and she won't need either of us to lift her up to do it. You're going to be a shining star all on your own, aren't ya kiddo," Aethyta said to her daughter, as she pulled her squirming child back down into her arms, and gently nuzzled her crest.

"Right, Da!" Liara answered with a bright, happy grin as she wrapped her tiny arms around her father's neck, and squeezed tightly. She absolutely _loved_ doing anything that made her father happy and proud of her, and if her Da said it would be so, then someday she _would_ become the brightest shining star in the whole universe!

Matriarch Benezia allowed an indulgent and amused smile to cross her lips, before she gracefully held out her hand at waist-level.

Liara immediately began to squirm about in her father's arms, causing Aethyta to let out a low chuckle, before gently placing her daughter back down onto the ground. With a small cry of pleasure at being able to reconnect with her other parent, Liara immediately ran over to her mother, and happily took Benezia's proffered hand.

"It's that time already, huh," Aethyta commented as she moved in closer to her small family, and placed herself so close to her bondmate, that Benezia felt a slight shiver of barely-suppressed pleasure race down her spine.

"Yes, it's time for Liara's bath, and then on to bed. She's had a full day already between her studies, and then the 'playtime' you _insisted_ she also indulge in," Benezia said with that same indulgent smile on her face, as she looked with gentle affection down at her daughter, who was now desperately trying to hide a yawn.

"Hey, the kid's gotta have some fun too! Can't be all work and no play. Isn't that right, kiddo?" Aethyta said with a quick grin down at her now-fully yawning daughter. She then bent down to Liara's level, and gently stroked her drowsy child's soft crest.

Liara sleepily nodded _yes_ as she leaned into her father's loving touch.

"We'll have even more fun when I get back, 'kay Li. I've got to go away for a little while to handle some...business...on Tuchanka, but you'll have plenty of fun here with your mother, alright Little One," Aethyta said softly, as she watched bright tears begin to fill her daughter's crystal-blue eyes. Liara quickly pulled away from her mother's light grasp, and threw herself back into her father's arms.

"Don't go, Da...Mama and I'll miss you..." Liara hiccuped tears into her father's neck, which caused Aethyta to feel like an iron-clad fist had just wrapped itself around her heart. She raised softly-pleading eyes up to her bondmate to please _help her_, because by the Goddess she _hated_ making her little one cry.

Benezia just gave her bondmate a slight smile, tinged with just a hint of sadness, as she said in reply, "Liara is right, my love. We'll both miss you terribly while you're gone."

Aethyta let out a low, noisy breath and _just_ kept from cursing as she didn't want to expose her daughter to _that_ just yet. There would be plenty of time to teach Liara the joyous wonders of cursing up a blue streak, and calling some pyjak an anthropocentric bag of dicks!

"Okay listen up little one, I'll only be on Tuchanka for a few days, then your old man will be right back to steal you away from all your mother's studies, so we can have some proper fun again! Headbutt promise," Aethyta said with a soft smile as she leaned her head forward, and lightly tapped it against her daughter's forehead. Liara let out a light giggle despite her tears, and pressed her little forehead back against her father's as hard as she could.

"Headbutt promise," Liara replied with a soft, teary smile.

"Alright ya little munchkin, bath and bed time for you now! Off you go," Aethyta said quickly as she swiftly rose to her feet, and gently moved her daughter back over to her mother. Benezia and Aethyta then shared a long, silent moment between each other that Liara just _knew_ actual words were somehow being passed between her parents, _without_ them being in a meld or touching one another. She just hadn't quite figured out how they were doing it yet. But one day she would! Nothing could keep her from figuring something out once she decided to pursue it. Her mother always just gave her this little smile, and called her 'precocious' whenever she started 'investigating' something. Her father always just laughed, and said that she was a "true krogan's kid", always charging off into some adventure or other, and getting into places she really shouldn't. Her mother always replied to that with, "that isn't how that works", which always made her father laugh even harder.

Liara let out a soft, contented sigh as she nuzzled against her mother's leg, and watched as her parents finally leaned in fully towards each other and shared a soft, tender kiss.

"Take care of yourself, 'Thyta. Don't go headbutting _every_ krogan who looks at you the wrong way," Benezia said with a knowing smile, as she tenderly stroked the fingers of one hand down the side of her bondmate's face.

Aethyta allowed herself the luxury of soaking up all the love and affection translated to her through her bondmate's touch, before she leaned back and let a cocky grin cross her face.

"Where's the fun in _not_ headbutting every young, hotheaded pyjak who thinks he can take on this old battle axe of a half-krogan!" Aethyta exclaimed with a loud laugh.

Benezia just grinned with affectionate amusement, as she replied, "you're incorrigible, 'Thyta."

Aethyta gave her bondmate a saucy grin and wink, before she stepped forward to begin making her way back towards the garden entrance, that led back into the T'Soni estate.

"That's why you love me, babes. That's why you love me," Aethyta called back over her shoulder with a quick grin.

"That it is, Thyta...that it is," Benezia said softly as she watched her bondmate walk away, then smiled down at Liara who was frantically waving at her father's back.

"See you later, Da! Come back soon! I love you!" Liara called out as loudly as she could, as she watched her father disappear back into their home.

"Love you too, Little Wing. Love you too," floated gently back on the wind to Liara's hearing which caused a small, happy smile to cross her face. She then turned towards her mother, and tightly wrapped her tiny arms around her mother's knee.

Benezia looked down at her precious child with all the love a mother could possibly have for her daughter, then gracefully bent down to Liara's level to be able to speak face-to-face with her.

"Why don't you and I hold off on the bath and bedtime for a little while longer, and head into the kitchen to enjoy some tasty fruit and cream together?" Benezia asked as she gathered Liara up in her arms, and turned to head back towards their home.

"Oh yes, please!" Liara answered with a bright grin, as she happily flung her little arms around her mother's neck, and leaned her head down onto her shoulder.

Benezia let a gentle, loving smile cross her lips as she headed inside with her child...the result of the beautiful Union between herself and Aethyta...her precious, darling _Little Wing_...Liara T'Soni.

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><p><strong>AN<strong> - This is just a short story idea that came to me, and I'm unsure whether or not to let it remain a one-shot, or to try to continue it. If there's any interest in reading a bit more, please let me know =3


	2. Chapter 2

**AN** - I just want to say a very big Thank You to everyone who took the time to read, and especially review the first chapter to this little series of mine. I really appreciated your kind words~ =3

Hope you all enjoy this new chapter~! =D

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><p>Ten-year-old Liara sat at the edge of one of the many small lakes that dotted the landscape of the sprawling T'Soni Estate. She slowly dug her tiny hand into the dirt beside her and pulled out a small, smooth stone. Then with all the might she could muster, she heaved the stone out across the water's unbroken surface, causing the stone to skip once...twice...then sink with a tiny <em>ploop<em>.

Liara heaved a deep sigh that flowed slowly through her little body, and went back to lightly digging her hand through the dirt...her young mind unusually troubled, and racing with thoughts she didn't normally have.

"Hey there, Little Wing. What'cha doing out here all by yourself? I'm actually surprised your mother hasn't sent Shiala, or even a small commando unit out to find you. I'm still trying to get her to understand that all work and no playtime, makes our little one a very constricted girl," Aethyta said with a light chuckle, as she came up alongside her daughter and unceremoniously plopped down onto the dirt beside her.

Liara peeked up at her father before looking back down at her dirt-smudged hands. She then dug deeply into the dirt that had long since messed up her pretty yellow dress. Her mother was going to be _extremely_ upset with her for that...however Liara was finding it incredibly hard to care about her subsequent punishment right now.

"Little Wing...what's wrong?" Aethyta asked with immediate concern, as she could practically _feel_ the negative emotions rolling off her daughter's small body.

"They called me a...a...useless, pure-bloodied b-b-bitch, and said that my parents must _really_ hate me to have decided to bring me into this universe," the pain-filled, heartbreaking words slipped quietly out of Liara's mouth, and Aethyta sat back in shock as a storm of emotions raged through her. She wanted to _kill_ whoever had _dared_ say such filth to her precious little one. At the same time she wanted to sweep Liara off to her mother, so that Benezia could help share her rage at the ones who would _dare_ slander their child. And then she also wanted to just wrap her arms around Liara and place soothing, comforting kisses all over her little face and crest.

What had happened to Liara was _exactly_ what she had been trying for this first decade of Liara's life to protect her little one from. The beyond _stupid_ ideas other asari had against offspring born of two asari parents. Unfortunately Aethyta and Benezia couldn't keep their little one sheltered forever. Liara was a smart cookie and once she turned ten, she had _insisted_ on being able to start school with the other asari children. She didn't understand why her parents kept her sequestered away by herself taking private lessons, when there was a whole _world_ of other young asari children she could get to know and play with. Sadly Liara had now learned just _why_ her parents had tried to keep her away from them all for as long as they had.

Aethyta knew that this day was coming...she had just hoped that Liara would have been a bit older, to hopefully have been able to better handle the ugly hate and despicable prejudice her own people had against her. If Aethyta could have used her own body as a shield against the hateful, spiteful words that were flung at her daughter, she would have done so in a heartbeat. But she also knew that she would be doing her daughter a disservice. She couldn't let Liara think and feel that _anything_ those high-and-mighty asari bitches had to say was _at all_ true, and that she should feel shamed or cowed by them. Liara T'Soni was the daughter of Matriarch Benezia and Aethyta, dammit! And absolutely _no one_ was going to make her little one feel _anything_ other than the most amazing, wonderful, intelligent being around.

"_Little Wing_, come here...come sit on your Papa's lap. Let me share something with you," Aethyta said with a loving, gentle smile that she only ever graced her daughter and bondmate with.

Liara looked back over at her father and wiped away with a dirt-smudged hand, a few stray tears that had managed to slip free of her cerulean-blue eyes. She then quickly scrambled up onto Aethyta's lap, and into her father's waiting arms; snuggling her little face down into the comforting warmth of Aethyta's neck, as she tried valiantly to hold back further tears.

"Shh shh...there there now, little one...you don't have to try to hide those tears from me. I know how much those words must have hurt you, and I want you to know that it's alright to feel that hurt. So go ahead, my precious little one. Don't try to bottle up your feelings...negative or positive. Let them out, my beautiful baby girl."

Liara did exactly as her father requested...she finally allowed herself to dissolve fully into tears, and release all the pent-up hurt, pain, and anger that the words and hateful attitude of her peers had filled her with. Aethyta just held onto her daughter and with tender loving strokes, she gently rubbed her hand up and down Liara's back. Then finally with a last quiet sniffle, Liara pressed her little body fully into her father's arms; the full release of her pent-up emotions leaving her emotionally and physically drained.

Aethyta placed a soft, sweet kiss against the side of Liara's crest, and then said in a gentle voice lined with soft steel, "now you listen, and you listen well to your Papa, little one. You are a _beautiful_ and _brilliant_ Asari. You are strong and fearless. You're _never_ afraid of a challenge, whether it's a new problem your tutors come up with for you, or Shiala showing you a new biotic technique. And you take after your old man here, where you aren't afraid to stray from the beaten path, and try new things. Your mother told me she gave you your first archeology book recently, after finding you playing around in the dirt one too many times. That's my girl! If they can't beat you, make 'em give you the tools you need to get better at what you love!" Aethyta exclaimed with a loud laugh as she held her daughter close, causing the first smile to appear on Liara's face since the terrible name-calling.

"I love you, Papa," Liara said softly as she nuzzled her face against her father's neck, then fully leaned her exhausted body against Aethyta, allowing her weary eyes to slowly close. This day had been emotionally exhausting, but she felt safe and warm now...wrapped up snug and tight in her father's strong, caring embrace. And for Liara T'Soni, there was no other place in the universe she'd rather be.


End file.
